French railways bomb plot suspects held

French police quizzed three people yesterday who they suspected of links to a clandestine group which has threatened to blow up the national rail network unless it received a multi-million-euro ransom.

The self-styled AZF group said it could carry out an attack more deadly than the Madrid bombing that killed 190 people this month, but on Thursday it suspended its threat to hit the state rail network, carrying 2.5 million people daily, with 10 bombs.

Officers detained a man in the Paris region and a couple in the central Loiret region, police and judicial sources said, near an area where threatening letters to President Jacques Chirac and the Interior Ministry were posted.

"The initial searches do not appear to have been that conclusive, but investigations are ongoing," a source close to the inquiry said.

Police have extended the warrant detaining the three suspects, who can be held for 96 hours under French law, a spokeswoman said.